


Orthogenesis

by theunknownfate



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, saving the world again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-04
Updated: 2014-07-04
Packaged: 2018-02-03 08:48:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 31
Words: 21,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1738487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theunknownfate/pseuds/theunknownfate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written a section a day all through May over at 31_days. 31 prompts + a short section a day = this thing.</p><p>New Breaches are opening, but the kaiju are different now. They've adapted and changed and the jaeger program has to scramble to keep up. New monsters, new robots, new relationships, all gradually becoming something else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. l'appel du vide ("the call of the void", the instinctive urge to jump from high places)

It had happened again. 

Deep down, Newt had always known it was likely, but he had hoped it would be another few million years before they tried it again. He had felt it like a splinter under the skin, something shifting ever so slightly, so minutely it almost didn't hurt, for days now. Weeks maybe. He didn't remember for sure. He should've written it down and documented the whole thing. Hermann would have. 

All he was sure of was that it had been bothering him for awhile, growing steadily more painful and more on his mind, until there had been a sharp stab somewhere in his brain and a new Breach had opened. He had missed where exactly. He had been left with an impression of cold and gone running to tell everyone that they were back and it was starting again, but no one had believed him and he had actually been sedated while some smug asshole explained that there had been no Breach activity in the ocean since the last one had been destroyed and he had tried to tell them, he had tried to explain through the tranqs that they weren't in the ocean this time, it was on land. Totally landlocked and no one would see it coming. 

He had been kept in for observation until the reports came in. Kaiju. But not really. They were small now. Smaller anyway. Still bigger than a human, still poisonous and nasty and hard to kill, but now they could engage the screaming humans directly. They could fit into most evacuation tunnels and make their way into bunkers. Instead of stomping you flat, they could claw their way into your house and eat you in front of your whole family. Somehow, it was even more horrible. And there wasn't just one. The Precursors had traded huge and unstoppable forces of destruction for small packs of hunters. There had been five separate ones in the last surveillance tape footage. 

They were about the size of elephants, only more like mangy hyenas with scorpion tails that packed a nasty hemotoxin. Bullets didn't work. Neither did fire. And once they got you, they either tore you apart with their teeth or let the poison rot you into a puddle. Newt had already mentally named them Manticore class. 

There was panic in the population. And despair. How could this be happening again? Why was it happening again so soon? Newt had been finally released from observation and put back to work. It turned out that the hammering wrath in his head hadn't been the new kaiju at all, but Hermann railing and threatening everyone involved from the orderlies to the Director of the Psychiatry department to get Newt out of there. Once he was out, Hermann relaxed and that storm died down. Not that he wasn't still livid. His whole face was stretched wide with outrage, mouth a thin line and nostrils so flared they could suck in low-flying birds. God, but Newt loved him for it. 

He was supposed to be working, but he needed a minute. He had already lost the better part of a week to a aloperidol–promethazine combination and a lot of gently spoken, condescending questions thanks to them. They could wait another hour. He had gone up to the roof to watch the transports. They were just headlights in the darkness right now, coming in and moving out. The whole operation was being shipped to the new Breach or as close as they dared. Where was it? Greenland? Canada? Probably Canada since there had been a large city on the footage. Unless Greenland had large cities. He would have to check. 

The apocalypse was back on. They were at war again. Moving again. They would be fighting again. He should've been excited, but he just felt a little sick. He wondered what the suicide rates were out in the general population now that it wasn't over after all. He looked down from the roof at the long, long fall to the parking lot. It really would be easier. He looked up at the sky, flat black with clouds covering the stars. Voids in all directions, each calling a different part of him.

Evolution was a tricky thing. The Kaiju had changed and so had he. He had more to protect now, more to lose. He couldn't be amazed at how they had gone from aquatic to full mammalian in just a few years yet. Eventually, he probably would be, but right now he gave himself time to grieve for plans that might never happen and a future snatched from him. It hadn't been like this before. He hadn't had Hermann before. 

"Yes, you did," Hermann sighed, catching on to his thoughts the way he did more and more often. He leaned into Newt's back and hooked his arms loosely around his shoulders. The cane hung from his elbow. How deep into his own navel had Newt been to not notice him coming? He leaned back into it, propping each other up. A kiss was pressed to his ear and neither of them said anything until a helicopter transport went by close enough to send their clothes fluttering around them. 

"I felt it as soon as you did," Hermann said then. "Or maybe it was you I felt, feeling it. They sent in tanks to deal with the first pack in Norilsk, but three of them are still at large."

"Russia," Newt said. "I thought it was Canada." He shivered. "I wish the Kaidanovskys were here."

"As do I," Hermann said. "It could be the pollution," he added after another long silence. "Norilsk was terribly contaminated by all the mining in its past. It may do to run seismic tests on other highly polluted places and see if there is any similar activity." He took a deep breath, as if Newt hadn't already thought of the next part. "If they are sending in multiple Kaiju, they might also have multiple Breaches."

Newt nodded, raising his hands to clutch Hermann's arms and keep him from letting go or stepping away. The starless night hung heavy over them and the void of black pavement yawned below. He wasn't going to jump. The enemy had adapted, but so had he.


	2. keien (appearing to respect someone while actually keeping them at a distance)

Their new base of operations was more concrete than metal like the Hong Kong Shatterdome had been. It wasn’t as big either. There was only one jaeger completely built in the world right now and it hadn’t been activated yet. It was to be Gipsy Danger’s latest incarnation, and that’s where Mako and Raleigh had been for the last two years. There was a team hard at work making a station for it as soon as it got here. Hermann didn’t know what they had decided to name it or if they would keep the old name.

The cold was in his bones. He recognized it from the winters in Anchorage. He had dressed for the cold but the ache couldn’t be kept out. Newt was feeling it through the Drift because he was doing his best to keep moving and be Hermann’s wind-block wherever they went outside. Luckily there wasn’t much reason to venture out. Their labs were a few levels down and wonder of wonders, not far from their quarters. They had found the elevator back up to check on the arrival of their equipment and saw a face that was almost familiar.

It should’ve been Marshall Henson. He had let himself go in the past few years since they had seen him. Grief and loneliness and maybe some heavy drinking had all taken a toll. He was more slouched now, and thinner, and more haggard. Hermann was surprised at such an uncharitable thought for an authority figure and elbowed Newt for being such a bad influence.

“He wasn’t your favorite anyway,” Newt whispered, smirking a little when it got him elbowed harder. It was true, though. Henson had never commanded the same respect Pentecost had and that wasn’t fair. He had been a formidible pilot and had been been given the heartbreaking promotion to Marshall the same moment he lost his son, right before the world didn’t end. Then, to learn that it had all been for nothing and the war had returned? No one could blame the old warrior for misery.

“Doctors,” Henson said. He didn’t slow down to walk with them, just passed them on the way.

“Marshall,” Hermann answered. Newt flashed him a peace sign.

“Back at it,” Henson said without looking over his shoulder. He took a turn and disappeared into an office.

“Yes, sir,” said Hermann. This wasn’t an encouraging start.

“You didn’t even try to salute him,” Newt teased.

“No,” Hermann agreed, realizing it himself. “I didn’t.”


	3. luftmensch ("one who lives on air", an impractical dreamer with no business sense)

The remains of four of the Manticore pack had been shipped in for study. The last survivor was actively being hunted with helicopters somewhere east of Norilsk. They were trying to steer it away from Krasnoyarsk Krai. One of the dead ones had had its legs shot out from under it by the tanks and then been run over a few times. Its blood had ruined the tank treads. One had been blasted with missile launcher, but had still put up a fight when they went into finish it. They had crippled another tank running over it as well. The other two had been firebombed and then shot with missiles. One of them had still enough juice to kill one of the lab workers with a stab of the poison tail to the throat. There wasn't a lot for Newt to work with, but he got to it. 

All four of them were riddled with holes, but the bullets hadn't gotten very deep. The blue-gray hides were four inches thick and tough as tires, and underneath was a foot-deep layer of something like blubber that all the bullets were trapped in. Not one shot had made it into the internal organs as far as he could tell. It had also kept the organs from being cooked. The ones on the footage had had six legs, but the bodies were so mangled it was hard to tell how they had fit together. The acidic blood had been neutralized and the familiar sting of the chemicals went straight up Newt's nose. 

"I had hoped I would never smell that again," Hermann sighed. Newt reached over and flipped on the fan. He unpacked all the samples and was hard at work for hours. The smaller scale made it easier to work with. Hermann was still going over the reports in other parts of the world until new information on the Breach in Norilsk came in. Three hours later, Newt finally spoke.

"The poison is produced by the choroid plexus," he said without looking up. "It's stored in the spinal fluid and kept in these pockets along the spine, see? It looks like insect segments, but it isn't." He held up a chunk of tail that was still intact to show the scorpion-like bulges. "Everyone of these holds about 8 ounces of venom. It's like toothpaste. The one nearest the stinger is the load that gets shot." He aimed the tail into a jar and used a clamp to twist a nerve in the piece of brain at the other end. Pale yellow venom squirted out of the barb. "See? Then the empty pocket will be filled by the next one and so on."

"That's horrific." Hermann thought about the people on the news. Their scar tissue had opened and blood had run from their orifices.

"Kinda the point, you know?" Newt sealed up the jar and started on the next one. "They want us dead."

Hermann watched him empty the poison points and then break down the muscle structure of one of the firebombed ones. He had to put it back together first. He was aware of Hermann watching, but didn't respond until he had what was left of the skeletal structure set up. 

"What?" he finally asked. 

"I was afraid we'd feel it when they were killed," Hermann admitted. "I'm aware of the last one out there somewhere, but the link is weak enough that I don't know any details."

"Lights going out," Newt agreed. He stepped back to pull some tendons aside to see how the second set of front legs connected. "I could feel them there and then I couldn't."

"No pain." Hermann asked, still watching him. 

"Nope." 

"You're enjoying this now."

"I knew I would. Once the shock wore off. It's just a relief, you know? Like bursting a boil so it can finally get better. Things are happening so I can do something about it. Before? Not knowing enough to act on? I couldn't breathe like that. And I have to breathe to live." Newt shrugged, tried to smile, and risked a heartbeat of eye contact before looking back to the remains. 

"It's not going to be like last time." Hermann's voice was soft and careful. "You understand that?"

"Don't pick a fight now that I'm feeling back to normal." Newt just sounded exasperated. 

"Normal," echoed Hermann, almost sadly, and that was all it took. When the Marshall came in to tell them that the fifth Manticore had gone to ground, they were both red-faced and screaming. 

"You can not just breeze through this as if there aren't consequences-" 

"Do you think I don't KNOW WHAT'S AT STAKE HERE, I-"

"Just like old times, boys?" Hansen asked, but they didn't even hear him. 

"It was TOO CLOSE LAST TIME-"

"AND IT WORKED! IT WORKED LAST TIME! IT-"

"AND THERE IS TOO MUCH TO LOSE AND I WILL NOT-"

"SHUT UP, SHUT UP, I KNOW. OK, I KNOW-"

"Gentlemen!" Hansen barked. Gottlieb actually held up a finger at him to tell him to wait. Hansen turned on heel and the slam of the door behind him finally made both of them look up to see him gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Manticore Class might look something like [this](http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m228/barrowite/manticore_zpsb8337472.jpg).


	4. jung (a feeling stronger than love that can only be proved after surviving a huge argument)

In the aftermath, they were both disheveled and breathing hard. There were papers scattered and something purple dripping off the table where Newt had slammed his fist down on it. Both of their faces were red and neither was willing to look at each other now that the screaming had stopped. Hermann spoke first. 

"I should go see what the Marshall wanted. Apologize." He took a deep breath and pulled his sweater straight. "I'll just…" He gestured at the carcass on the table."Leave you to it."

"No!" Newt was tearing off his gloves and rushing to scrub down. His voice cracked from all the yelling he had been doing and he cleared his throat. "No, no. You are never to leave. Not ever. If you've had enough, you send me out."

"I didn't mean _leave_ leave," Hermann said, exasperated but too tired to argue anymore. "I'll be right back."

"I'm coming, too," Newt insisted. He dried his hands and hurried over. Hermann was about to reassure him again, but they both froze when they got a good look at each other. Each of their left eyes were flushed with blood. 

"Oh," Hermann said, raising a hand to Newt's temple. Newt was reaching for his face, too. 

"Aw, man…" Newt said. "Break time." He took Hermann's hand and lead him to the door. 

"We really should speak to the Marshall…" Hermann said, but allowed himself to be escorted away from the elevator towards their quarters. They were sharing this space too. They had agreed it was more efficient and easier for their Drift connection if they were in close proximity and the first thing Newt had done when they got there was disassemble the bunkbeds and set them side by side to make one big bed. They both sat on the edge of it, still holding hands. 

"We weren't actually disagreeing about anything," Newt said. "Did you notice?"

"We're on edge," Hermann said. "Residual stress from the last pack member, perhaps." 

"I think it's dead now," Newt said. Hermann nodded. They sat quietly for a moment and then Newt slid to the floor to start pulling off Hermann's shoes. Hermann started to protest, but then sighed, and leaned over to undo Newt's tie. They took off jackets and belts and glasses and curled together like two puzzle pieces. Closing their bloodshot eyes calmed that ache as well. They squirmed and nuzzled until they were pressed as close as they could. They lay there and let their senses calm for awhile. Their nerves relaxed and their connection soothed their buzzing thoughts. 

It spread out, letting their thoughts and emotions bleed into each other until they were hard to tell apart. As they melted into it and synchronized a little, it became like a rorschach blot, symmetry from either side. 

"What were you so worried about losing?" Newt asked after awhile. They were so close, his lips brushed Hermann's chin. "The 'unacceptable loss' you were yelling about when the door slammed."

"You know," Hermann sighed. He tapped a finger gently against Newt's scalp where his hands were in his hair. 

"I want to hear you say it." It was said honestly, without any sass, so Hermann shivered and answered.

"I will write them whatever code they need to build whatever machine they think they want, as long as you are not put to any risk. Not like before." He opened his eyes. Newt could tell because the eyelashes stroked over his temple. Hermann looked at him a moment, then let them close again. "You're all I have. All I have had since this began."

"You big softie." Again, it was too gentle to be mocking, so Hermann confessed one more thing. He was sure Newt had already realized it through the Drift and hadn't been surprised. It was probably safe to say. 

"Without you, I would have a hard time caring about what happened to me," he said. As he expected, Newt accepted this and hugged him a little tighter. 

"I love you too, man."


	5. zhaghzhagh (the chattering of teeth due to cold or rage)

Hermann had used Newt's research to completely redesign an attack machine. The new kaiju were smaller and lighter, so would be the new jaegers. The weaponry would have to be able to penetrate the creatures' hides and withstand or neutralize the acid. Luckily Newt knew all about the chemical processes in that and was full of ideas. If it worked, these new robots would require much less energy to run. Much less radioactivity, too. They might not even need two pilots.

It was brilliant and revolutionary and Marshall Hansen took it as a personal insult and a betrayal to all those who had gone before. He started out cold and furious, but it only took a few explanations to have him shouting. Hermann was used to shouting matches but only from people who knew what they were talking about. He was glad Newt wasn't there to say so out loud. As it was, he was having a hard time remembering his manners. 

"It takes years to build a full-size jaeger." He tried very hard to sound reasonable and not condescending. "There's only one even close to operational. Yes, there are two more in production, but they won't be ready for much too long. We don't have that kind of time, Marshall."

"Once we have that one, what makes you think we'll need these toys?" Hansen spat, waving his arm at the schematics. "This attack wasn't nearly as bad as Trespasser. That thing killed thousands. So far these have barely made it into triple digits. They were also stopped in a third of the time. The new Danger could crush all five of them under one foot!"

"If she could catch them, sir!" Hermann sputtered. "It would be like trying step on a minnow in a pond! These new creatures are too small and fast. They scuttle like roaches and a traditional jaeger would do more damage to the environment trying to catch them than the creatures themselves. They have made us the rampagers, sir. The jaeger would become the monster in that scenario." He took a deep breath and calmed his expression. "They have changed, Marshall, and to survive, so must we.”


	6. lagom (not too much or too little, but just right)

It took four more arguments to finally wear Hanson down. 

"And how do you plan to pilot these things?" Hansen stabbed a finger at the papers again. "Remote control? They are barely big enough to fit pilots inside." 

"There are other possibilities," Hermann said. "If they can be configured for one pilot they can be worn like a-" He resisted rolling his eyes. This had been Newt's terminology. "Battle suit."

"And you really think that will work." It wasn't a question, but Hermann raised an eyebrow at him. 

"I can show you what we have so far," he said. 

"Get it in here," Hansen grumbled. Hermann hurried to collect Newt and their research. It wasn’t going to be much of a presentation. They weren't prepared and Hansen was already annoyed with them. Newt come along this time, to run the projector and as moral support. And to put his two cents in. 

“What, like he’s really going to say no?” he whispered on the way. “We’re his best chance and everyone knows it.”

Hermann hoped so. When they got back to the Marshall’s office, Hansen was looking over the schematics that he had left, which was a little more encouraging. He started talking as soon as they got through the door. 

“Technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in the years since the first Breach closed,” Hermann said.

“You’re welcome by the way!” Newt said. He turned on the holoprojector and Hermann started pointing at things.

“The information gained from Dr. Geiszler’s experiments alone has opened up new worlds of possibilities,” he said. Newt didn’t even try not to grin. “With the technology we’ve been working on, it may be possible to Drift from a distance now. A pilot wouldn’t even have to be in the jaeger. They could be safe and sound here. If their jaeger is destroyed they would only have to disengage, reconfigure to a new one, and go on fighting.”

“Plug and play,” added Newt. “No need to go down with the ship, no need to be exposed to radiation.”

“If you had had all this before-“Hansen’s voice was flat and borderline accusatory.

“Against the Category 5s, there would still be no guarantee,” Hermann said. “It might’ve saved them, but it might not’ve been able to stop the kaiju either.

“What can you guarantee now?” Hanson asked. “You said something about only one pilot.”

“We ran the numbers,” Hermann began.

“ _He_ ran the numbers,” Newt chimed in.

“And it _is_ possible.” Hermann raised his voice and glared. “But nowhere near as safe as we would like. “ Hansen made an unimpressed sound, so Hermann kept going. “However, if we are short one pilot for whatever reason…” He gestured awkwardly at Hansen, who went from unimpressed to a full glower. “We may have a theoretical option.”

“Theoretical.” Hansen turned a pen in his hands like he wanted to stab something with it.

“AIs,” said Newt, cutting in again. “Artificial intelligence as a buffer. It could synch with the pilot and share the load.”

“Explain.”

“In the early days of the jaeger program, it was suggested as a way to spare the pilots, but it couldn’t be approved.” Hermann shrugged. “There was too much fear that something as powerful as a jaeger could never be allowed to leave human control; that without humans as their ‘heart’ so to speak, they would just be a different kind of monster.”

“But!” Newt was pointing at different things in the projection as if anyone else but him and Hermann would ever understand it. “An AI paired with a human pilot? We ran a simulation and the numbers look promising.”

“What kind of AI?” Hansen asked. “How, how would they be programmed?” There was something so pained and grudgingly hopeful in his voice that Hermann took a step away before he answered.

“We can’t give you Chuck back,” he said. Even Newt was shocked by how blunt that was. “It won’t have a personality or memories of its own. It would adapt to your mind, fill in the blanks, as it were, to make a better fit.”

“Better,” Hansen repeated, going cold again.

“Not too little, not too much,” Newt said. “Just enough to put the pilot in control and share the load.”

“And you honestly think this can work?” Hansen asked. That had been the question that got them here.

“We’ll need your approval to go ahead,” Hermann said. “At the very least it will give us options we didn’t have last time.”

Hansen was quiet for a moment. He looked at the projected formulas and diagrams that he didn’t understand and turned it over in his head a few times.

“Beckett and Mori will be here with the new Danger in another month,” he said. “Have it ready to try by then and we’ll see what we can do.”


	7. backpfeifengesicht (a face badly in need of a fist)

The new staff was getting acclimated and the science team had been called on to let them all know what they were dealing with. It should've been straightforward, but Newt had behaved himself for far too long. Now that he had a captive audience, he was airing all his complaints and political opinions in between unpleasant information delivered with enthusiasm that even Hermann thought was unseemly. Hermann even knew better, knew how much of it was an act and how much was bluster, and still felt his teeth grind a little. 

"It really makes sense that they'd send mammals to fight mammals," Newt was saying. "I mean think about it, the last time they were here the dinosaurs roamed and what survived the dinosaurs? Little scurrying things. So now, they've gotten small and scuttery. Comparatively speaking."

He grinned like it was the best news ever, and got nothing but stoney faces back. That was the usual Geiszler charm. How someone so brilliant could be so annoying had always been a mystery, but now, post-Drift, Hermann finally knew. It was a test. Who was smart enough to understand what he was saying and focus on that instead of the delivery? Anyone? Anyone? Maybe not this time. The vibe had gone from reluctant to hostile, but Newt was so used to that, he rolled on. 

He listed off the main characteristics of the new Kaiju and how they were different from the original monsters. He then used some of Hermann's charts to show how they had changed throughout the first war and offered some speculation on what kind of changes might happen with this new batch. 

"These five were all definitely clones," Newt went on, gesturing at the table full of samples. "All genetically identical. This is only the second time I've ever had multiple samples from one event so, it's good to put that debate to rest for the second time." He winked obnoxiously at Hermann who rolled his eyes. Newt would never stop gloating about that, just like Hermann would take any chance to remind him that his predictive model had been spot on. It could wait a little. His turn was next.


	8. glas wen (an insincere or mocking smile)

Newt was a hard act to follow, especially when he had left an audience that was all borderline offended and horrified. When Hermann’s turn was up, the whole panel was much less receptive than they had been at the beginning. None of them wanted this to be real. After the celebration when the first Breach had closed, the relief and the survivor’s guilt had been so powerful that there had been psychological studies on whether humanity would be able to get back to normal until everyone who remembered it died. 

These people had all thought that they could begin that process, but now they were being told that they were right back at square one. It didn’t help that they had been told with more glee than was appropriate, and that they had no idea that the grinning presenter was just as fearful and miserable about the prospect as they were. That left Hermann to be the hope-bearer and give them all reason to get behind this project. Newt gave him a thumbs up from across the stage and Hermann sighed.

He put on his most polite smile (which he had been told made him look extra smarmy, but what could he do?) and started in on his own specialty. He admitted that until the next attack came they wouldn’t know how accurate the predictive model they had been using was. The new timeframe might be as different as the Kaijus' new bodies. Even the Breach was different. It had started to crumble on its own as soon as the fifth Manticore class pack member had died. Hermann had found four other spots with similar contamination levels to Norilsk. If there was a connection, more Breaches could open and more Kaiju could come out. 

"Such as?" asked one of the crowd. There wasn't any heckle in it, so Hermann answered. 

"Kabwe, Zambia." he said. "La Oroya, Peru. Sukinda, India, and Tianying, China."

"But you don't know for sure."

"Not at all," Hermann admitted. "However, it seems unlikely that this will be the only attack. Of all our options, I can't say that complacence will do us any good. We can either attempt Dr. Geiszler's suggestion of restoring Earth's environment to pre-human levels to make it uninhabitable for them…" His polite smile went a bit more mocking. Newt winked. "Or we can confront the problem in the time-honored way of our people." 

The projector showed the new designs for the smaller, lighter jaegers. Hermann had barely started to explain the specifics when the door burst open. It was Marshall Hansen, looking grim.

"Second Breach open, just like you said," he said. 

"Where?" Hermann asked. 

"Peru," Hanson said. His eyes flicked over the designs that hadn't been built yet. It wasn't guilt exactly, but it was something that tightened his whole face. "Yauli Province."

"La Oroya," whispered the one in the crowd. 

"Nailed it," Newt stage-whispered. Hermann wasn't able to work up even a fake smile for that.


	9. saudade (longing for that which you love and which is lost)

The new batch of Kaiju were smaller yet again, though not by much. About the size of a full-grown moose, they had bristles and tusks and a sloping back like a wild boar. Newt kept pausing the footage to point out details, like the scales down the sides and the long, crocodilian tails that were decidely not mammalian. There was something else too, a bioluminescence that flickered over the bristles. They were tearing through the city and the locals' houses stood no chance. 

Most of the video was blurry, which frustrated Newt no end. He wanted a better look. Hermann was just trying to figure out how many there actually were. There might have been more than five, but it was hard to tell. Helicopters had been sent in. Most of the footage was aerial which was probably a good idea because nothing was able to get close to the things. They tore houses and buildings wide open with the tusks and went in snorting. 

"Gullinbursti Class," Newt said suddenly. "That's what I'm calling them."

"I'm not even going to ask," Hermann said. He had already gotten one of his personal computer programs to start pinpointing and numbering the creatures on the video to try and figure out how many. 

"Then you're never going to know," Newt sang back. There was a chime from the computer and a new video was sent in. "Omigod, Hermann! Hermann, look!" The new video had a good aerial shot of the whole town and they could see the pack moving through it. 

"I definitely see eight," Hermann said. "Send it to me, so I can scan it." They both bustled and scurried, and Marshall Hansen watched them in between watching the footage. They handed each other things without being asked, or even being aware of it, all the while, talking and bickering and still being focused on their work. Drift Compatible, no doubt. It hadn't been that way for him and Chuck. They were Compatible, sure, but they had never been connected. They had been like gears in the machine, slotted together and doing their jobs, but still always separate. Not like this, like two halves of a brain actually functioning as a whole. 

Years old grief flared and twisted deep down, like a swallowed ember. He hadn't had anyone since Chuck and Pentecost had saved them all. When the Breach had opened again in Norilsk, he had nightmares that the creatures coming out were actually the fallen jaegers, remade and sent back to destroy their original makers. He was the most experienced jaeger pilot left alive in the world right now, but he had no partner. He had been dreading the tests to find someone he could be Compatible with, but he had also been cautiously hopeful that his empty places might not be empty forever. 

But now, the new jaegers might not need two pilots. Even if he was able to pilot one, he would have to do it alone. There would be no partner, no connection. He would still be alone. He shuddered and hugged his arms close, watching all the action. A J-Tech with a bluetooth scuttled over to tell him that none of the new categories had been killed or captured yet, but the bodies of the dead humans were going to be shipped in for study. There was some confusion about getting family permission when not all the bodies were recognizable and some whole families were dead. Hansen just nodded his approval and people scampered away to do it. Without him. This time, he was grateful for it. Dead children, dead parents, dead friends… Being the one left alive at the end was hard to bear.


	10. kalpa (time passing on a cosmic scale)

The predictive timeframe for the events had to be completely reconfigured. Hermann had been slaving over it for the past few days. Newt was waiting on clearance to examine the human victims and none of the latest Kaiju had been killed yet. He had spent most of the time on the phone with the teams dispatched to hunt them and with the jaeger production team in Alaska. Now, he had come back to the lab to watch Hermann work.

"Why do you think it happened so quickly this time?" he asked quietly after awhile. "Last time it was months, and the time before that millions of years. Are they really moving that much faster than us?"

"Well, it's another dimension," Hermann said, too busy to look up. "Maybe for them, the time is all the same."

"Do you think it's because of us?" Newt asked next

"Hm?" Hermann really was listening. 

"Because of our Drift. Now that they know us, they're trying to fight fire with fire. Gradually getting smaller and more mammalian, and coming faster and faster. What if we did that? Sped them up? What if one day they come out human?" Newt sounded like he already new the answer to that and just needed to hear someone else say it. Hermann wasn't sure what the healthiest response was. 

"You're the expert, Newton," he said finally. "Do you really think that is likely?"

"I've been thinking about it," Newt said."Thinking about a lot of things."

Hermann finally looked up. Newton was the picture of misery, sitting on a table with his feet hanging above the floor. The nervous agony in his stomach was twisting in Hermann's stomach now too. It had been years since he had experienced a break up, but it had felt a lot like this. Newt gasped out what should've been a laugh when he picked the thought up.

"Kind of," he said and Hermann leaned against the table. His cane was just out of reach and he wanted to be sure he didn't fall if his head spun or his knees buckled. "Not really," Newt added quickly. "Just. Maybe. We should have separate labs."

There was a whole storm of things to say to that, pros and cons to weigh, rational questions to ask, but all Hermann managed to squeak out was a "Why?"

"I just thought," Newt was struggling with both their emotions now. His feet were swinging, his hands were jittery, and there were definitely some tears on the way. "If it was us that gave them these ideas?" He waved a hand at the samples already bottled up and the data on the screens and blackboards. The other one was pulling at his tie. "Then it was probably mostly me. And maybe…" He swallowed hard and the tears overflowed. "Maybe I shouldn't be allowed to know anything about your work. So I can't tell them about it." His voice broke and he covered his face with his hands. "Maybe this is my fault."

"No," Hermann said, hurrying to him. "No, it isn't. I don't believe that for a moment." He got his hands underneath Newt's and raised his chin to look at him. They were both in tears now. Newt wrapped arms and legs around him and pulled him close enough to snuffle and cry on. 

"I don't want to," Newt sobbed. "But-"

"And if they still don't stop coming?" Hermann asked. "Will you move out of our room too?" The thought alone made him a little queasy, and Newt moaned into his collar. "Will you shut yourself away from me, from everyone?" Newt broke down completely at that. Hermann held him and stroked his hair and let them rock gently. 

"I want you with me," Hermann finally said. "I won't ask you to help with my work anymore if it will make you feel better. We can even put tape across the floor again if it will help." Newt choked. "But I can not-" Hermann struggled with the next word and had to grit his teeth to get it out. "Continue as I have without you." He pulled back enough that they could look at each other. 

"And if I ruin everything?" Newt asked him. He could barely see through his puffy eyes and his fogged glasses. His chin wobbled so hard that Hermann cupped it in his hands. 

"Then we'll both go," Hermann said. He tugged at Newt's waist until he slid off the table to stand on the floor. "Come now. Let's get some air." He didn't go back for his cane, just clung to Newt's arm and gently led him out the door.


	11. gumusservi (moonlight shining on water

It wasn't midnight yet, because the moon was still up and the Kara Sea in the distance glimmered silver in the dark. Hermann took them both out to the emergency landing pad. The breeze was cold on their wet faces, but it felt good to breath it in. Hermann took Newt's hands and set them on the railing, then nestled into his back, wrapping arms around him and setting his chin on his shoulder. It was much like they had stood the night the new Breach opened. 

"There," Hermann said, and they actually did relax for a few minutes. 

"We can't both leave," Newt said after a bit. He sniffled a little. "Neither of us can. They, they need us both."

"Exactly," Hermann said. Newt shuddered. 

"I don't want to be the thing that brings us all down," he said. Hermann knew better than assure him that he wouldn't. He just hugged him tighter. 

"It used to be the ocean they hid in," Newt went on. "Now I think it's me." He jerked his head at the shining water, refusing to let go of the railing. "All mercury-quicksilver-pretty on top and bad things on the way from the bottom. That's what it feels like, Herm." His voice broke again. "That's what the inside of my head is like."

"For how long?"

"Since about an hour after La Oroya opened." The breeze was too icy now and he wasn't sure if he had lost feeling in his fingers from the cold rail or from the deathgrip he had on it. He turned to curl against Hermann's stomach, clutching his coat instead. "I thought maybe you felt it too since, you know, we didn't speak to each other that whole day after."

"I'm sorry," Hermann said. "I was putting in all the new data and you seemed as excited as ever about the new samples. I didn't pick up anything like that-"

"I'm glad." Newt stood up to hide his face against Hermann's neck. "I don't want you to. Maybe they won't get you." 

"I'm not going to let them have you either," Hermann said, running hands over his back to calm him. It didn't work. 

"They're already in, man!" Newt protested. He pulled back to wave his arms. "The call is coming from inside the house! You can't get to where they are!"

"Can't I?" hissed Hermann, suddenly fierce. His bloodied eye lit up bright and battle-ready and he leaned in so close their foreheads were touching . Newt felt a throb in his own eye as it widened. "Drift Compatible, remember? You've hurt yourself trying to carry this alone and I. Will not. Have it. And! If they are trying to take you from me?" Hermann's normally grumpy face pulled into a tooth-bared grimace. He looked dangerous and his voice fell to wrathful growl. " _ **No."**_

"Oh," said Newt, taken aback. Hermann crushed him in a kiss that left teeth indents on his mouth and railing marks on his back. It shut down every part of him that could feel the cold or be aware of the future. It stole all the air from his lungs so that when Hermann released him to ask how long it had taken him to build his PONS device, all Newt could do was wheeze. 

"No matter," Hermann said, pulling him back toward the door. "With both of us working, we can have it finished by morning." 

"But," Newt was still giddy and flustered and not doing a very good job of being his cane. "I don't want to give them access to you-" 

"Neither do they," Hermann muttered, dark and murderous again. There was something threatening under his surface too, Newt realized and it thrilled him to think that it was there for him. "I promise you that." 


	12. manque (having failed to become what one might have been)

It only took four hours for them to build a PONS device. Most of the equipment was there and all they had to do was find it in the inventory and put it together. They were building it out of actual part without any improvisations, but Newt became more and more agitated as the device got closer to completion. His nose started bleeding and he went to the bathroom to take care of it. Outside of Hermann's proximity, the panic started to come back. 

Could Hermann really protect him from what he had done to himself? How badly would he be hurt trying? Newt couldn't risk it, couldn't drag Hermann down with him. It wasn't fair, it wasn't right, and the world was going to need him. The world needed him now and he was wasting his time trying to help Newt, stricken by his own doing and quite possibly a traitor to his whole species. 

"No, I'm not," he said to his own reflection. It didn't look convinced. Wouldn't it be easier just to get it over with? His brain pulsed twice, making him wince and sending another gush of blood out of his nose. Wouldn't it be less horrible just to go with it? He could go full on mad scientist here, be on the winning side. With what he knew about Kaiju, he could make them even better. He knew what the Precursors didn't. They could send him raw materials in the forms of their own imperfect creatures and let him remake them. Let them remake the world.

He wouldn't be a rock star so much as a god. 

And God, it would be easy. He could walk straight back to the lab and get started. A solid swing of his own cane to the glabella, and Hermann could be safely stashed out of the way. Once Newt was on board, the kaiju would start coming to him. He would be the new Noah, two of each kind to breed and rebuild, except for him, because there would be no one for him, because even safely stashed, Hermann wouldn't be his anymore. 

Holy shit. That thought slammed through like a runaway tank. What the hell was he thinking about? Hurting and imprisoning Hermann to play Dr. Frankenstein? How was that even allowed to cross his mind? That was blasphemy. To think that he could- Holy shit! No! 

"No!" he screamed it out loud and this time, his reflection looked as furious as he felt. He was not going to lose Hermann to this. If he went rogue, it would cost him everything. He would lose Hermann and everyone Hermann had ever defended him against (he knew about that now, thanks to the Drift) would be proven right. Hermann would lose everything too. No one would ever listen to him again. He would always be wrong, even when he wasn't. He would be guilty by association. They could take his work, cut his funding, refuse to let him work on anything important again. Or worse.

Hermann was the one fighting against this. It should be Newt railing against the mind-control, throwing a middle finger salute into the abyss. Hermann was totally out-rockstarring him right now. Newt was not going to lose him. Hermann was his. Hermann meant the world. The same ferocity that had shocked him from Hermann flared to life in his veins. No. He glared at his bloodied reflection. He wanted to punch the mirror and spiderweb whatever the Kaiju saw through him to fractals. Sons of bitches. He wanted to write NO backwards with his bloody tissues so they could read it on the other side. Instead, he jabbed a finger at his reflection's eye.

"You could make monsters," he hissed at it. "Try to make your own world sometime." He wiped his face on his sleeve, smearing red to his elbow. "You can't have mine."


	13. mamihlapinatapei (the look shared by two who desire to start something yet are reluctant to)

The second Drift with Hermann had been like dropping a torch into a gas-filled mine shaft. It had burned out all his dark corners and left him smoldering, but clean. They had synched, blurring into each other, and after the first pinch, it had been nothing but relief. The burden was shared. They were not alone. They ended up making out like rabbits fresh out of prison. It just made sense. It was only their skins keeping them separate, but there were a few places they could still fit inside each other. The alarm going off to announce the arrival of the new jaeger team was all that kept Newt from riding Hermann into the floor with the PONS still strapped to both their heads. 

"They'll be looking for us," he groaned.

"Don't care," Hermann rasped back. His eyes were blown wide and black. Newt didn't care either, to be perfectly honest, but he knew that Hermann would care later, so he made himself relax and pull the devices off. The complete sense of one-ness flickered out leaving only their usual connection humming between them, a little stronger now. 

"You're still not over having your Dad walk in on you in the shower when you were a teenager and chew you out for being indecent," Newt reminded him. "Which explains all the layers, I guess, but geez. What an asshole."

"We could be finished in time." Hermann winced as the PONS got caught on his ear. His hands were still under Newt's shirt. 

"Not for what I have in mind," Newt tried to grin, but still hadn't managed to peel himself off yet. "Come on. Later. I promise." It actually hurt to separate from each other and they clung as if they were dizzy, but eventually, they managed to untangle and head down to the receiving bay. 

 

The new jaeger was being lowered into its garage. The new Danger looked a lot like the original, but there were upgrades and a few extra touches that were clearly tributes to her fallen comrades. As impressive as it was, it wasn't going to do much good against the new Kaiju. Hermann had been right; it would be like trying to stomp on hummingbirds. Mako and Raleigh were greeted like the heroes they were and they made the rounds gallantly. They spoke and shook hands with everyone and hopefully no one cried or apologized for this happening again. By the time they got to Hermann and Newt, they looked relieved to see someone familiar. 

They weren't as thrilled with the new jaeger designs. They kept trading little sideways looks as Hermann explained. Newt noticed it too and would start talking louder and faster to cut off anything they might say. Soon he interrupting Hermann too. He scurried around waxing obsessive about the new Kaiju until he got called away by a technician. One of the Gullinbursti had been driven off a cliff and gravity had done the dirty work. They needed advice on how to move the body that had taken that particular damage. 

Once he was out of hearing range, Mako looked to Hermann for an explanation, like he hadn't kept a close enough eye on Newt. That rankled. It had been them who hadn't been here for this. 

"What was up with that?" Raleigh asked. 

"He's been told he was crazy for most of his life," Hermann said, maybe a bit more coldly than they deserved. "He'll go to great lengths not to hear it from those he considers friends." It was like kicking puppies, to be honest. They looked at each other again, chagrined and taken aback. 

"They're likely to ask you to come out to hunt the Gullinbursti as soon as your jaeger is ready," Hermann went on. "Do make note of any difficulties that can be addressed with the newer models." Mako agreed with her usual good manners and Raleigh followed her lead, but they had both excused themselves before Newt got back. 

"W- What did they say?" he asked entirely too timidly. He could tell Hermann was annoyed with them, but was working so hard to keep his own emotions in check that he wasn't digging deeper. 

"They were disappointed that with so much time and money spent on the Mokushi Danger, she might be obsolete already," Hermann said. 

"You didn't say it like _that_ , did you?"

"I know something's wrong when _you're_ worried about tact," Hermann scoffed, then softened. "I knew, anyway. Now, when will your new samples get here? I have data to calibrate."


	14. ilunga (forgive the first time, tolerate the second, never a third)

Two more Gullinbursti had been brought down in as many days. The Mokushi Danger had been able to fine tune one of its ballistics to snipe them. Since the creatures' skulls were almost solid armor, the only vulnerable spot was between the shoulder blade protrusions. A hit anywhere else would send it sprawling and tear it open, but it would get back up again and leave a poison trail wherever it ran. The rest had gone to ground as soon as their packmates had been killed. They were tiny compared to the jaeger and hid in the mine tunnels and buildings. It was like a bear trying to catch individual bees. Newt had been taking the dead creatures apart cell at a time to try to give them something helpful, but in the meantime, they had added thermal vision to the list of things they might need in the future. 

Newt had finally been cleared to examine the human bodies and found that most of them had died of poison. The pig-like bristles were actually poisonous spines and carried a toxin similar to that of the blue ringed octopus. The Precursors hadn't completely given up on the ocean, then. The bad news was that getting a face full of the spines meant an adult human only had a minute to live. The good news was that you might be too busy dying to feel the tusks or the acidic drool. That stuff had already eaten through three pairs of gloves.

"I need one alive," Newt muttered. Hermann made an agreeing noise without actually saying anything. That was fine. He was busy too. He had his job and he was doing it. Newt's job was to end this. Silence all the voices once and for all. There had to be a way to use the hivemind against the kaiju. If he could get a living one, he could find a way to infect it with something that would spread to all the others like wildfire. How to do it without hurting Hermann though? And Newt was hoping to survive as well. He and Hermann never had gotten the time to finish what they had started with their second Drift. 

Hermann might not approve of this anyway. Newt felt a little sick every time he thought about it. He had been in a cold sweat since he had decided to go forward. But they had made him think about hurting Hermann, about turning on him, and for that, they could suffer as much as Newt could make them. He had made himself so annoying that Hermann had been forced to block him out a little to work. He didn't want Hermann knowing what he was trying to do. It couldn't be kept a secret forever, so Newt had to make progress before he was caught. As much as a relief it would be to be caught and stopped from doing it, it still had to be done.


	15. ya'aburnee ("may you bury me", one's hope of dying before another because it'd be too hard to live without them)

Three days later, at four in the morning, Newt came stumbling to bed. Hermann was sitting up reading, but put aside the book and held out his arms for him. Newt pulled off whatever would come loose between the door and the bed and just collapsed with the rest. Hermann cuddled him close, which should've sent Newt into warm, fuzzy glee. Now, it just made him want to cry. 

"You're so tired," Hermann murmured. "You've been working hard. I can tell that from a distance, but-"

"Don't," Newt sniffled. 

"-you don't want me to know about it," Hermann finished. "And so, I, I haven't pried. I've tried to focus on how you're feeling and not what you're thinking. I can feel you panic every time our minds touch these days." He was being so accepting and gentle that Newt knew he was exhausted too. He really was trying to butt out, and trying even harder not to be hurt or angry at being shut out in the first place. 

"I'm selfish," Newt said. "I want this on me, not you. It might not work, it might be horrible." He could feel Hermann about to offer to help and barged ahead. "I'd rather you be safe than me. All the blame, all the…" He couldn't think of the right word. "Stuff. All on me. No sharing. I wouldn't be able to stand it if it was you that had to pay for this. If anybody get buried for it, I want it to be me."

"Don't you dare. Even. Imagine." Hermann's voice was too tired to be as ferocious as it had been days ago when they had Drifted, but the same fire was behind it. "That being left behind would be a _mercy_."

"I know," Newt squeezed his eyes shut against the glare of Hermann's reading lamp and Hermann stretched to turn it off. In the dark, Hermann's hands felt distant and disembodied as they unbuckled his belt and buttons and helped peel off the rest of his work clothes. "I'm not talking funerals or anything, just, just… stuff."

"Your paperwork says you want to be cremated," Hermann said. He sounded far away too. 

"I haven't changed that since I first joined," Newt said. He tried to make it sound funny, but it came out small and pathetic. "Would you rather have my ashes or visit a tombstone?" 

Hermann was quiet for so long that Newt got nervous and finally reached out through their connection. He got a flash of all the funerals Hermann had ever been to. There had been times when Hermann had been the only one there and he had just ended up standing by the grave for as long as he was able, because what else could he do? And if there wasn't a funeral? Just imagining it had paralyzed Hermann. In his mind he was just sitting there, clutching an urn and unable to move or think without it hurting. How long would that vigil last? Would he just curl up with it and die, too? It seemed possible. 

"Please don't ever do that to me," Hermann finally said. 

"No promises," Newt said, but that was cruel and he grimaced. "But same to you."


	16. koi no yokan ("premonition of love," the sense two have upon meeting that they will fall in love)

The new jaeger designs were finally in production so the three Rangers were coming to see. It didn't look like much so far. Just the frame work for three of the humanoid ones was in place and then there were five smaller things a little farther along. They looked more like animals or the kaiju themselves. 

"Those are the ones that might be piloted remotely," Mako remembered. 

"Seems weird," Raleigh said. "Not to be there." He looked back at the first three with some dread. They might mean Drifting with an AI and not Mako. She caught the thought and she took his hand to give it a squeeze. Even being in separate jaegers wouldn't separate them, she promised with a look. 

"I don't like it either," Hanson said. "But it's taking weeks to get the Gullinbursti out of La Oroya and Dr. Gottlieb's program is picking up vibrations in India that matched the last two Breaches, so we can expect something to happen there in the next few weeks as well."

"Should we take the Danger there and wait?" Raleigh asked. "Maybe stomp on them as soon as they come out?"

"We're getting permission for that," Hanson sighed. "They don't like the attention being brought to their pollution levels or the insinuation that their poor upkeep of the environment is the cause of monsters on the loose. And there's some outcry about other countries sending gigantic weapons of war into theirs without cause. We may have to wait until the bloody things show up before we do any stomping."

They all fell silent, watching the mechanics. Raleigh and Mako were still holding hands and Hanson sighed after awhile. 

"You two knew, didn't you?" he said. "When you met, or close to it. You felt something."

"Yeah," Raleigh said at once. Mako smiled and ducked her head a little.

"Was it like that for you?" she asked. "Or did it happen more gradually, him growing up with you?"

"First time I held him, I felt it," Hanson said. "I put it down to new fatherhood. And maybe it was. Things were definitely rough between us before we found out we were Compatible. And after." He shook his head, trying to smile. "And now."

Raleigh and Mako traded look again and Mako reached out to take Hanson's hand, too. He was less likely to shake her off, and sure enough, he shuffled awkwardly, but didn't pull away. 

"More pilots are training in Alaska," she said. "Soon it won't be just us, but for now, we are all here."

Below them, they saw Hermann come in to show a schematic to the foreman and point at the humanoid jaegers. The foreman was nodding and his second turned to relay the orders to the other workers. Newt hurried in after to gesture at the schematic and Hermann, who rolled his eyes, but nodded. They both left and the mechanics got back to work. 

"Must be a new breakthrough," Raleigh said. "How do you suppose those two felt when they first met?"

"They wrote to each other a long time first," Mako said, breaking in a grin. "And, I believe, fell in love. Then, they met in person." She chuckled a little. "And if the story is true, ruined an entire conference with their fighting." 

"That's so sad!" Raleigh said, even though he laughed too. "Two halves of a whole and they couldn't stand the sight of each other?"

"It's not as shallow as it sounds," Hermann said, leaning in around the door. "Newton didn't exactly make the best first impression on you either, if you'll recall, Mr. Beckett."

"How did you get up here so fast?" Hanson asked, not as embarrassed as Mako to be caught talking about him. 

"Thanks to Nathan Ames," Hermann said. They looked blank, so he added. "Inventor of the escalator."

"He never even made one!" Newt shouted from out of sight. "It was Jesse Reno who actually built one that worked."

"It was Ames' idea," Hermann called back. "He invented the design."

"Cows invented milk, but it was Nancy M. Johnson who came up with ice cream!"

"Don't tell King T'ang that," Hermann sniffed. "He was only eating it 1200 years earlier."

"Don't even call that stuff ice cream!" Newt shouted. He was huffing and grumbling, but still hadn't made the corner. "The milk was _fermented_ and had _camphor_ in it!"

"And just for the record," Hermann said, primly. He turned to look Raleigh in the eye. "It was the sound of him that I couldn't stand."

"Past tense!" panted Newt, finally coming into view. He was dragging a piece of equipment bigger than he was back toward the lab a few inches at a time. Hermann heaved a long-suffering sigh and held the door open for him.


	17. duende (the mysterious power that a work of art has to deeply move a person)

The Breach in India opened when the last two Gullinbursti died. Their Breach crumbled as the new one opened. This time there were twelve of the new Kaiju. They were larger than grizzly bears with multiple clawed limbs and no faces to speak of. They had no visible eyes, but little pits kept opening and closing around their heads and down their spines. Newt was sure that that was some form of sensory gathering, but he wouldn't know how it worked until he got a sample. 

"They're like waterbears! Grizzly waterbears!" he said at first sight. "There's gonna be poison. Every time there has been something poisonous." He tilted his head, considering. "Do you think it has something to do with the pollution?"

"I'll leave that for you to find out," Hermann said. He was getting the systems ready for the first attempt at a Drift pool. The smaller jaegers weren't ready yet, so the three larger ones had been prepared. They barely stood as high as the Mokushi Danger's knee. They were identical, clean and gray, with no insignias and only a stenciled number to tell them apart. They were streamlined and identical and smoothly perfect. Newt itched to decorate them somehow, but agreed with Hermann that that would be for the pilots to do. They would also want to make new adjustments and add new parts as they adapted. 

"We can customize them later," Hermann said. "Right now we just have to get them going." They were all loaded up on the back of a carrier. Since all the pilots were experienced, it was deemed safe enough to attempt the pool in midair on the way to Sukinda. Mako and Raleigh were there in their black suits, Hansen in his green one. They looked at the three jaegers and then at the cluster of chairs where they would be synched.

"You two still ok with this?" Hansen asked the other two Rangers. He looked a little sheepish, which was so unlike him that Hermann's nerves twinged a little tighter. This was his idea and if it didn't work-

"Of course," Mako said at once. Raleigh nodded too.

"If this works, it will change everything," he said. "But we're going in cold and it'll be a relief to have you with us."

Hansen nodded and took a deep breath. He looked up at the three plain jaegers again and then went over to one of the chairs. He looked around the room and saw the creatures on the screens in Newt's corner. 

"What are we calling these?" Hansen asked Newt. 

"Mumblers," Newt said. Since he was behaving himself this time, he explained. "Video game reference. Headless bear monsters."

Mako was examining the new jaegers closely now. She walked from one to another. 

"Dr. Gottlieb," she said after a moment. "I owe you an apology.'

"I," Hermann was genuinely puzzled. "I can't imagine what for, Miss Mori."

"I doubted you. I didn't think these would compare to the original jaegers," she said. "But your design is perfect. They are as simple and elegant as calligraphy."

"Oh. Well. Well, thank you. Miss Mori, I." Hermann was actually blushing and Newt felt a grin stretch his face. A flustered and flattered Hermann was a rare treat. "I appreciate that."

"All right," Hansen said. "We're to synch as best we can with each other and then connect with the jaegers. They'll be deployed when we're in range of Sukinda." He made a 'who knows' gesture with his hands. "And we'll see what we can do."


	18. schadenfreude (pleasure from someone else's pain)

The attack worked, but it was messy. Mako and Raleigh had synched as perfectly as ever and after some thought static and hesitation from Hansen, he crept into the Drift with them. It was weird, and the connection wasn't as deep or pervasive as the ones they had had with just two. And once they synched with the jaegers, they kept colliding with each other. 

"Pauli exclusion principle," Hermann muttered. "They trying to occupy the same space and it isn't going to happen."

With some clumsiness, they got on the ground. Hermann also sent a giant metal sphere. 

"What's that for?" Hansen asked. 

"Just a test run," Hermann said. "Prototype. It will roll after you until activated and then it may be useful."

Once engaged, the battle went pretty well. Hopefully finesse would come with practice, because it was an all out brawl. The Mumblers looked soft and furry, but they were tough. Newt had been right about the poison too. The faceless heads had rolled back to let a spear-like proboscis emerge and Jaeger Two had been stabbed through the face with it. Raleigh had been synched with that one and had jerked in his seat. 

"That's exactly where the pilots would've been in a classic jaeger," Newt had said. "They remember."

Mako's Three had torn it away from him and the proboscis had broken off. It was still sticking out of Two's head and blue fluid had drained out of the cracks. The Mumbler had injected it full of something. Hansen's One tore it in half before it could could get up again. 

"You all right?" Hansen asked. 

"Yeah!" Raleigh sounded surprised. "It didn't hurt much. It just jolted me." His Two gave itself a shake and got back into position. "Vision is a little weird from that fluid, but I can keep going."

The fight had gone on. Raleigh's Two had eventually lost all its vision, but the Drift with the other two Rangers let him see what was happening. It took four hours until there was only one Mumbler left. It was cornered and had reared up to its full height to fight them. Hermann interrupted them, then. 

"Miss Mori," he said. "If you would be so kind, there is a mechanism on Three's left arm. Engage that, please."

She did and laser grid appeared over the Mumbler. Hermann advised her on what button to push. The sphere that they had all forgotten about split into two hollow halves and rolled to either side of the Mumbler. They snapped together, sealing it inside. There was a brief silence and then the sphere shook as it tried to get out again.

"Live capture?" Raleigh asked. "Is that a good idea?"

"Dr. Geiszler research had been obstructed by the dismembered state of previous samples," Hermann said. "An intact specimen may give us more information."

"Fair enough, I guess," Hansen said. His One aimed a small kick at the sphere. "How are you going to kill it?" 

"That will fall to Dr. Geiszler's expertise," Hermann said. "Even that may tell us something useful. Bring it with you, if you please."

The Rangers agreed and started steering the sphere back to their pick up point. Once all four were loaded, the Rangers disengaged and got out of the chair cluster. They all winced and help their heads. 

"It feels like eye strain," Mako said, shielding her eyes from the lights in the station.

"Or a hangover," Hansen agreed. 

"We got them all, though," Raleigh said, breaking into a grin. "It was weird, but it worked!"

They congratulated the doctors and made arrangements to have Two cleaned and repaired and they left to get their suits off and decompress. Newt had been silent ever since the last Mumbler had been captured and was now staring at the sphere on the security camera. It was sealed and contained and then sealed again, down in the hold. There was failsafe to drop it out of the plane if it got through the first seal. Every now and then it would tremble as the Mumbler inside turned around. 

"You specifically designed them to be able to catch one alive," he said faintly. 

"Of course," Hermann said. "You said you needed one. I do listen to your prattle, you know."

"You are amazing," Newt said, and meant it. He knew exactly what he was going to do to the captured kaiju and he was hoping beyond hope that Hermann wouldn't pick up on it. It wasn't going to be pretty. How could you hurt a hivemind? Well, he would have to see what he could plug into this one's brain that the others would feel. He suspected that it was going to turn into nothing but torture, and he hoped that didn't make him a bad person. Looking into the abyss, he thought. Becoming a monster to kill one. He took a deep breath. He had to keep himself together. Be professional. Scientific. 

He couldn't let it be a grudge, even if they had destroyed everything, ruined everything. It couldn't be about revenge, even though it would serve them right if he could just make them feel all the suffering they had caused. He couldn't be fanatical about this, even if they had made him imagine hurting Hermann and for that, he wanted them all to burn. He couldn't let that get in the way. Had to get his inner Vulcan on. Couldn't get upset. Couldn't throw up. Absolutely could not let Hermann be in harm's way. This was going to be ugly, in every form of the word. He wasn't going to like it, he told himself. He refused to be the kind of man who _would_ like it. He just had to _do_ it.


	19. yuputka (walking in the woods at night)

Back at base, Hansen was up and pacing. Adrenaline had him jittery and talking to himself, so he had headed out into the cold to wear himself down a little before trying to sleep.

The three-way Drift had worked. He could barely believe it. It hadn't been like Drifting before. They hadn't meshed completely. The handshake hadn't gone all the way to the bone. He had been aware of Mako and Raleigh's immediate thoughts and emotions, but nothing deeper. The strongest connection had happened when the Mumbler had stabbed Raleigh. Mako's emotions had flared like lightning and Hansen had moved with her, caught up and carried along with the flood. They had been in perfect synch in that moment, wrenching the thing away from Raleigh and killing it. It hadn't mattered that Raleigh hadn't been in the jaeger to be hurt. 

It still wasn't the same, part of him grumbled. Gottlieb had been right when he said it wouldn't be having Chuck back. It wasn't even like having his own Compatible copilot. But it was something, and his lonely mind had been starving for it. Just a taste was enough to make him feel ten years younger. Settle, he told himself. It isn't going to be like this every time. It isn't going to be like the old days, especially with no one to be with outside of a jaeger. That's why Mako and Raleigh weren't out here with him. They had each other to balance out, burn off the extra, stabilize. Hansen didn't. Probably wouldn't. Maybe never again. 

How many times had he wished that Chuck had lived since Operation Pitfall? The thought didn't even register anymore. It was a constant in his mind and an ache that never faded. He wondered suddenly if Mako and Raleigh had felt it in their own veins. Poor kids. They had to survive their own heartbreak and loss without having to bear his. But, he hadn't heard Yancy's screams or Stacker's silence from either of them. Maybe the shallow Drift had spared them all.

And truth be told, if Chuck were here, he would likely be complaining bitterly about not being able to use Striker Eureka anymore. He would've insulted the new designs mercilessly, torn into the scientists for thinking they could reinvent the wheel, mocked Raleigh and Mako for going along with it until one of them hit him. Eventually, it would be a competition to be alpha in the Drift pool. Oh, he'd be obnoxious and Hansen heard himself laughing softly into the cold air. He made himself stop and start back before he got too far away. 

He still had people to protect. He owed it to them, not just to the people they had lost.


	20. orenda (the invocation of the power of human will to change the world around us)

Hermann was busting out all the stops with the new machines. He had designed sentries with the same AI code as the small jaegers and was sending them out to all the potential Breach sites. He also used the information from the original Breach to configure them to only be a threat to Kaiju. The original Breach had only allowed something with a Kaiju's genetic code to pass through. The sentries would only target it. 

There were bound to be political repercussions later, but no one had explicitly said not to. Newt continued to be a bad influence even when Hermann hadn't seen him in awhile. Hermann told himself that it would be someone else's argument. He had deliberately made the sentries as non-humanoid as possible. It was much harder to be threatened by something that looked like rolling hatstand with a head like a security camera. They were also armed, but mostly with hook hands to latch on and be carried wherever the Kaiju ran to, and an injectable supply of ammonia oxidizing bacteria. He had gotten the idea from a fish tank and had no idea how affective it would be. 

Newt had let him test it on some of the previous samples, but wasn't willing to contaminate his experiment with the live one. Hermann hadn't even seen the thing since it had been brought in. There was a special cell for it a few more levels down. Newt was spending all his waking hours with it. It really did feel like they were working separately again and it was bothersome. He could still feel Newt through their connection, but it was always distracted and distant. 

Every time Hermann tried to go down there, Newt would sense him coming and meet him halfway. Sometimes he could be persuaded to come eat or rest for an hour or two, before he scuttled back into his hole again. Sometimes, he would be collapsed asleep when Hermann got back to their room. A few times Hermann had awoken to him trying and failing to slip into bed quietly. 

Hermann missed him and had said as much. Newt had looked like he was going to cry and had held him for a long time after that. The next day had been back to distance and dismay. Hermann went back to work too, keeping the mental doors open in unspoken invitation. It was easy to bury himself in the work. He was determined that the sooner this was ended, the sooner things would be back to normal, even though he knew it might never be over. If the Kaiju could keep coming, they might always keep coming. His brief time as a happy man with a partner who understood might be just that. Brief. Over. 

He put down the chalk and wiped his hands off before he sat down and then buried his face in his palms. He hadn't been this lonely the last time he had had had to work alone. How many years ago had that been? _You have seriously compromised my efficiency!_ he thought hard at Newt and felt some kind of pang in response. He was rubbing his eyes and was such a relief to have them closed that he had to count backwards to see how long ago he really had slept. He didn't want to go back to the room and sleep alone and wake up alone and go back to work alone. 

There was some kind of solution to this problem. There always was. Surely he wouldn't be in the way if he just went downstairs to sleep near Newt. It might be enough to soothe the fretful thoughts that kept telling him he was missing something. Something wasn't adding up, something wasn't right, they whispered and he knew better than not to believe it. There was still time to fix this though. He got up and found his cane and hurried for the escalator.


	21. greng-jai (not wanting someone to do something for you because it would inconvenience them)

Nothing was working exactly right. The Mumbler could be hurt. Newt knew because he had tortured the poor thing every day. It wasn't enough. He couldn't tell what kind of damage he was really doing. Maybe there wasn't a whole hivemind like last time. Maybe the Mumblers were only a hive of Mumblers and not connected to the Manticore or Gullinbursti at all. He would need another live one to be sure. 

The easiest way to find out would be to Drift with it, but the thought of going in without Hermann felt queasy and wrong. It probably wasn't a good idea to form a link with something he was doing his best to torment. And if there was any chance of them learning secrets from him, he couldn't risk it. He wondered if one of Hermann's AIs could be used to Drift with it. If there was a way to download from the Kaiju's brain to the AI, then they could just kill the dribbling thing and he could go back to his real lab. He could sleep at night and be with Hermann without hating himself for what he was doing. 

He couldn't just swipe one of the AIs though. They were all carefully tweaked for their jobs. He couldn't ask Hermann for one, because then Hermann would know what he was up to. He would be horrified. Might be disgusted. Newt had disgusted him for years, but if he felt a fraction of the ugliness Newt did, he might never look at him the same way again. And that was worse than this. As miserable as it was to hide in this dungeon and use all of his precious knowledge to cause so much suffering, if it worked he could have his old life back. No one would be the wiser, and he could go back to being his real self.

How to do it without involving Hermann. No one else could design anything to compare with Hermann's. He would have to get something a few levels below and then configure it for his purposes. The only person he knew of that could arrange something like that was Hannibal Chau. As soon as that thought was considered, he felt a mental gasp. Dammit, Hermann had caught that and before the chagrin could even set in, the door opened. There Hermann was, looking at him like he'd been caught cheating. Seriously, what else would that mixture of betrayed and hurt and angry be compared to? It wasn't just the expression, either. Newt felt it unfold in his own stomach and any dismay he might've tried to turn belligerent dissolved in it. 

"What do I have to do?" he groaned, throwing up his hands and arching backwards. "Do I have to leave this base entirely to put enough space between us?" He covered his face with his hands. "I don't want to leave, Hermann, but I can not drag you down with me!"

"You made me promise not to leave, remember?" Hermann's voice was barely above a whisper. "If you go, I'll have to follow." He sat down carefully, legs shaky under him. Newt slumped, despair draining him into a puddle in the floor beside the chair. His head ended up leaning near Hermann's knee and he felt long, thin fingers dig into his hair. 

"I couldn't ask it of you," he tried to explain. "I couldn't ask and have you see how fucked up it all is."

"But you'd leave me to ask someone else," Hermann said. "And not even tell me why." The self-loathing that Newt had been brewing since he started this bubbled over and he clambered up to wrap his arms around Hermann's waist.

"I'm ruining everything," he moaned into Hermann's stomach. "And I have to keep something safe. So there'll be something left for me when it's over." This close, with his emotions unchecked, the things he had tried so hard to keep hidden came to the surface and and Hermann's grip in his hair tightened. 

"You're doing something," Hermann realized. "Something you're afraid of…"

"Deal with the Devil," Newt whispered. "And get what you asked for, but lose everything else."


	22. cavoli riscaldati (attempting to revive an unworkable relationship)

"I need your help," Hermann said after a long silence. As close as they had become, he had never said that out loud to Newt before. Hermann ignored the baffled look it got him, even though it was a blessed relief over the stricken one. "The new designs are working," he went on, a little louder. "But something isn't quite right. They are close." He finally looked down to make eye contact. "But they aren't as precise as I know they can be."

"And your mathematical little soul is about to take its bed over that," Newt guessed. He sat up out of his slump.

"That among other things." Hermann gave him a look that wilted him all over again. Hermann looked away. Newt saw his throat bob with a swallow. "We always accomplished more together, even before the Drift, even when we were at each others throats. I'll go so far as to say _especially_ then." He looked back one more time and Newt saw his jaw tense as he felt Hermann's resolve turn to iron. "If you refuse to join me in our previous quarters, then I have no choice but to move into yours."

That hit Newt with such a mixture of dread and relief that he wasn't able to answer at first. Hermann waited, letting him sputter and choke on the wrong words. After a brief struggle, the dread won out. 

"You can't see this," Newt finally whispered. He flicked his fingers at the dungeon around them, the various scientific equipment turned torture devices, the silent, faceless Mumbler. Hermann raised a ruthless eyebrow and Newt shuddered. "You can't see me _do_ this. You won't- I can't- It's worse than you think, and if you see, you won't ever-"

"Tell me," Hermann said, cold and merciless as his eyebrow. "You've kept it buried so that I couldn't find it by accident, so now you have to tell me."

"I'm trying to use the hivemind against them," Newt said. It all spilled out of him in a rush. "I thought if I could just mess this one up enough, the rest of them would feel it and they would know we were too crazy to be fucked with. I mean how many worlds have they eaten and we're the first to go Hah! Taste giant robot fist! I mean, that's first-day-in-prison crazy, right? And I've been, I've been--" His voice trailed off again. "Hurting it. Trying to find something bad enough that they'll feel it all the way back to the the cloning pens.I thought about those brains from the failed tests back in the day? The ones that went crazy and died? That they had to study to see just what the Drift did to a human? I thought if I could get one, I could plug it into Mumbles here and drive it insane and maybe give them all nosebleeds for once. I thought-" 

His voice broke off this time. Hermann was looking at him with undisguised horror, and Newt couldn't meet his eyes anymore. 

"I wanted it over so we could go back to, to what we were doing." Newt looked ashamed. but Hermann could feel that that was the only part he wasn't writhing over. His voice rose a little. "I want to get them back. Take it to the mattresses, whatever. I hate being jerked around like a puppet when-"

"That's it," Hermann said suddenly. He whipped around to stare at Newt, pupils blowing wide. Newt felt the flash of an idea that pulsed once and then lit up as bright as telepathic neon. 

"You've got an idea." It never hurt to state the obvious. Hermann lunged to plaster a bruising kiss right on his mouth and he didn't know whether to just melt or defend himself. It only lasted a second and then Hermann was breathlessly pulling him toward the door. "We've been going about this in entirely the wrong way!"

"Wh-what?" 

"Puppets on strings!" Hermann's mind blazed with codes and equations and the changes he would have to make and how to convince the Rangers to try this now, of all things. "Taking the fight to them!" Their connection crackled and Newt felt little glimpses of the picture without seeing how they fit together. Hermann's elation and the grip on his arm were enough to convince him though. Maybe if he really was forgiven, he would get another kiss out of this later.


	23. retrouvailles (the happiness of meeting again after a long time)

It was like clockwork now, clicking along in perfect order. Hermann’s designs were falling into place. Now that he wasn’t wracking his mind for ways to agonize the Mumbler, Newt was feeling better too. He still wanted to keep it alive. There was plenty they could still learn from it. Hansen and most everyone else didn’t want it to have any chance to escape. They tried to compromise. Hansen offered up freezing it solid to keep it fresh and Newt protested.

“It’s kind of like a tardigrade,” he tried to explain. “I’m not even sure it _will_ freeze. And any way we try to contain it may be something the next batch will be immune to. If you try to decapitate it, the next ones will probably have armored necks, I mean, that is what happened last time.”

“What do you suggest then?” Hansen asked and Newt had let Hermann take over the explanation. 

“We want to try to plug in its brain to one of the AIs,” he said. “If it responds to that the way we have calculated, we may finally have a way to take this war into the Breach. No more waiting, Marshall. No more wondering when the next attack will come. If we can force the Kaiju’s mind to accept an artificial Drift, we may be able to control them.”

“Like you did,” Hansen had gone to his flat disapproval voice.

“No!” Newt stepped in again. “Nowhere near! We drifted with a piece of dead brain and a just barely dead one. This would be with a live, thrashing hivemind. That’s why the AIs. They would absorb the worst of the confusion from the hive and let a pilot get through to the individual Kaiju’s brain.”

“And then what?”

“Then,” Hermann said, eyes and voice going intense. “We will finally have a way through the Breach to attack them directly.” Hansen blinked, letting that sink in. 

“The Breach will let them through,” Newt said. “And only them, remember? We get one to Drift with and send it home and use it to fight them.”

“Won’t it be a massacre?” Hansen said. “You said the Anteverse was crawling with them.”

“We can plant a bomb or some kind of poison. Turn around is fair play, right? Give them a taste of their own medicine. And the pilot will be safe and sound here to do it again as soon as the next one comes through.”

“What if they find out what we’re doing and turn that around on us?” Hansen asked. “Hivemind.”

“Fail-safe,” Hermann said. “An explosive can be implanted with the PONS. If contact is lost, it will automatically detonate.”

“Lobotobomb,” agreed Newt. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet, all his old energy back. He hadn’t moped since Hermann had dragged him back up the escalator. 

“And you agree with this?” Hansen asked Hermann. 

“It was my idea,” Hermann said. Hansen was quiet another moment, thinking it over. Hermann and Newt waited for the gears to stop turning.

“No one Drifts with anything without my express approval,” Hansen finally said. He had gone as steely as Hermann had. “Test the equipment on the thing you have until you’re sure. COMPLETELY sure.” He took a breath. “And whenever you ARE sure? I go first. No one else. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Marshall.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good.” Hansen turned and walked away briskly, calling back over his shoulder. “Gentlemen. Amaze me.”


	24. ayurnamat (no point in worrying about that which can't be changed)

The next Breach opened in Zambia. Kabwe was a mining town, just like the others had been. Heavy metal pollution in the water had been a problem for a long time. The Breach opened with the groan of displaced earth and the crack as the Big Tree National Monument cape fig tree split apart. 

The Breach tore it wide open and the latest Kaiju walked out. These were smaller than the Mumblers and almost beautiful. They were the size of smilodons, and had the saber-teeth as well. They were longer though and had multiple tails that flared blue along the vertebrae like the original Kaiju had. They had six strange, bulbous eyes in their faces and possibly down their sides as well. They were an inky blue black color. They had fur around their faces and tails, but the rest of their skin was textured almost like scales. They made a soft, wet chitter noises to each other. Their lights brightened and dimmed as they went. 

"That's not even the awesome part," Newt gasped. He had been wheezing since he got some footage of them. "You gotta see this. I mean, just look…!" 

The vaguely cat-like creatures were seen striding out into the street and as they went, they faded out of sight. Their outlines were visible in a transparent blur for a moment, and they they were gone completely. Newt squeaked happily, but no one else was as excited, so he tried to explain.

"I'm guessing those scales on their skin are actually chromatophores," Newt said. "Uh, that's little cells of pigment that they can control. They can change colors and textures and everything. Cephalopods can do it, too. It probably means they have really good eyesight so they can match to the environment. It's perfect camouflage. Ok, so you gotta get me one of those."

"Get me one, you mean," Hansen said. 

"What?" Raleigh and Mako asked in the same breath. 

"The new machines are mostly mobile PONS units," Hansen said. He pointed out the squid cap-like attachment to the newest models. There was also the needle. 'They're going to latch on to a Kaiju and force a Drift between it and the AIs. The AIs will take the brunt of it. Once the handshake is complete, I'll join the Drift, just like I did yours."

"That-" Mako stumbled over her words which was so rare they knew she was truly shocked. "That can't be-"

"You'll be able to go through the Breach with it," Raleigh realized. Mako caught it in the same instant and gasped. 

"If it works, we all can," Hansen said. "Meet their makers and stick those big teeth straight into their necks."

"If it works,"Mako repeated. She started to say more, but he gave her a look.

"I will never be Pentecost," he said. "But I am the Marshall. If you have a legitimate concern, I will listen, but I will not tolerate pity."

"Never," she said at once. "But concern was the right word."

"No need for that yet," he said. "We haven't even caught one. What are you calling this class, Dr. Geiszler?"

"Yautja Class," Newt said at once. "For the invisibility and the noise they make."

"Fine," Hansen said. "Suit up. Pack for the heat. We leave for Zambia in three hours."


	25. kouyou (the changing of the colors in fall)

Hermann's sentries were already on the job by the time the team got to Kabwe. Since they were hunting for the Kaiju's genetic signature, the invisibility didn't slow them down much. They had latched on to the ones they caught and were broadcasting locations as the Youtja class moved around the city. So far, casualties had been surprisingly low. There hadn't been any public attacks or massacres yet and everyone hoped it would stay that way. 

Then, a cache of partially devoured bodies was found on top of a building. The Youtjas were stealthier than their predecessors had been, but no less dangerous. The good news was that the thermal vision Hermann had hurried to code into the three jaegers could also pick them out. They flickered in and out of the shadows. Mako and Raleigh took off after them and Hansen walked on with an escort of the small PONS equipped jaegers. 

They were following a sentry beacon and soon enough, there one was. Two of the sentries had fastened on to the Youtja and it was spinning in more and more furious circles trying to reach one or the other. It turned with a snarl when it saw them, baring rows of fangs and the weirdly blue lining of its mouth. Hansen nearly fired his shoulder cannon down its throat on reflex, but spread out his arms and hunkered forward like he was trying to catch a loose dog. The PONS carriers spread out in formation around both of them. Their AIs were in direct communication with the one in Hansen's jaeger and they were ready to move as soon as he did. 

Hansen feinted to the side and the Kaiju lunged to the other, allowing him to grab it at the base of its multiple tails. It turned back on itself, biting and pawing at him. It didn't have claws, he noted with a little surprise. It had long hoof-like toes that tapered to blunt points and judging from the impact sounds as it kicked against the jaeger, they packed a nasty kick. He got another arm around its neck and heard something else grate against the metal. It had spines in there somewhere. The PONS carriers slid forward and one clamped down on the Kaiju's head. It thrashed but the sentries dug in to help Hansen hold it and soon the device was digging in. 

"Whatever you're doing, it got the rest's attention." Raleigh's voice startled him. "They're heading your way."

"All right, let's do this quick," Hansen said. The AI in the carrier was already interphasing with the Kaiju's mind and while there was thought static and resistance everywhere, the connection was there and holding. Hermann released the connection between Hansen and the other pilots. Hansen shuddered and flinched and then sank back into the Drift with just his AI. A second PONS carrier skittered up onto the back of Jaeger One and plugged in, and then it was the three AIs in between Hansen's mind and the Kaiju's. They were stabilizing it, filling in the gaps, but Hansen jerked and hissed. 

"It's _RED_ ," he whispered. "Not blue, it's like _blood_ …" Then he went still and the whole team waited anxiously. The medic unit was standing by, tense to lunge. Newt had his hand on the cut button, ready to break the connection as soon as Hermann gave the signal. Hermann's eyes flicked from the monitors to Hansen, waiting for any of the readings to turn dangerous. 

"The whole pack is on you," Raleigh said. "They're invisible, but they're all there!"

In the grip of all the machines, the Kaiju had gone motionless as soon as Hansen had Drifted into it. Now it looked up. Hansen's fingers went white on his armrests. 

"Marshall?" Hermann asked. 

"I can see them," Hansen hissed. Then he snarled. Miles away, the Kaiju did too. It flew into action and all the machines let it go. They went to engage the others. Hansen's Kaiju turned on its fellows, tearing into them. There was enough of them, that they would've been able to surround it and rip it to shreds if Mako and Raleigh hadn't arrived to help. It was a total brawl for seven long minutes until the PONS attached to the Jaeger One was smashed into and knocked away. The connection severed hard and Hansen yowled in pain. Both Mako and Raleigh turned to help him and the last three Kaiju bolted. Two of them still had sentries clinging to them so they would be easy to track down. The third had been Hansen's. It screeched too, staggering as it went. 

Everyone in the deck was running to get Hansen up and out of the chair. All the gear was detached and he was pulled to his feet. They couldn't tell if he wanted up or down.

"Get away!" he screamed and no one was sure if he wanted them to or if that was what the Kaiju was trying to do, so they all gave him a moment. His vitals signs settled down and as soon as Raleigh and Mako got out of their own gear and got hands on him, his head cleared. 

"Again," he said at once. They all stared. "Find my guy. I'm going again."


	26. nunchi (the subtle art of listening to and gauging others, and knowing what to do in a situation)

No one knew what to say to the Marshall. Hansen was determined to go back out and recapture the remaining Yautja Class. He had a nosebleed, and was talking loudly and quickly, but other than that, he seemed lucid. Everyone insisted he be examined before anyone did anything else, and he did protest, but finally allowed himself to be checked out. He still wanted Mako and Raleigh to go out without him and catch the last three. 

"Use the spheres," he said. "If you can get all three, we can all go in next time." One of the medical team squawked.

"Sir, you can not!" he protested. "We don't even know the extent of the damage to you, yet!"

"Fine," Hansen stuffed some gauze up his nose and shrugged away from the tech trying to check his blood pressure. "But I'm going again as soon as that thing is caught."

One of the PPDC attaches had been sputtering the whole time and finally pushed to the front.

"It's too dangerous to-" she began.

"It wasn't too dangerous the first time," Newt chimed in. She glared at him. 

"The PPDC will never approve this course of action!" she insisted. "They weren't properly notified about this."

"Until you ran screeching to tell them," Newt added again. "What? The whole base heard you. Like a banshee, man."

"You are already dangerously out of bounds!" she said, going a few octaves higher. Newt sniggered until Hermann nudged him to get back to work. Hansen stepped over to look her in the eye. 

"This was perfect," he said. "We got one of them to kill their own kind for us. Do you have any idea how that changes things? Fill out whatever forms you think are necessary, but I'm the Marshall of this Dome, and I say we're doing it again." She started to argue and he talked over her. "It's perfect. You don't even know-"

"I know it drove that one crazy!" She pointed at Newt who made an exaggerated 'oh noes' face. It was Hermann who snarled back at her. 

"You know nothing!" he said, and there was enough loathing in those three words to freeze everyone in the room in place. Even Hansen went a little wide-eyed. He recovered quickly though and walked over to the screen showing footage of the Yautja class. It took him a moment to pinpoint which one he had Drifted with. 

"There," he said. "The PPDC weren't especially helpful the last time we saved the world. This, though? It's poetic justice and it's a perfect killing machine and that one-" he pointed at the screen. "Is MINE."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yaujta class might look something like [this](http://hermitchild.deviantart.com/art/Kaiju-464479504).


	27. goya (the as-if, transporting suspension of belief one feels from good storytelling)

Mako and Raleigh had gone out in the Mokushi Danger to patrol the town and to be seen. The PPDC attache had scurried off with her phone again and no one had any doubt that she was spilling everything to everybody. No one was particularly concerned, but they had all picked up the pace to get the next phase underway before they could be delayed. Everyone had the feeling that it was too late to turn back. They were all charging ahead. 

Hansen was now raptly listening to Newt and Hermann's Drift stories. He was trying to compare his to theirs, but there weren't that many similarities. 

"The AI must have made the difference," Newt said. "You didn't have the whole hivemind crashing down on you, or a ringside seat to the Anteverse."

"No," Hansen agreed. "It started out like a Drift, but it was red and hot and liquid…"

"You said it was like blood when you first synched," Hermann checked his own transcript. One of his sentries monitors beeped and he hurried over to check it. 

"Definitely a living animal and not a machine," Hansen said. "But I thought it would be blue. Their guts and fluids have never been red."

"They haven't been mammals before either," Newt said. "When you get your critter back, see if you can make it let me get close enough to examine it."

"I don't know if that would be safe," Hansen said. "I got it to turn on the others, but I was dragged along once it got going. If there had been humans there, I might've turned on them too."

"You may have the chance to find out," Hermann said from across the room. His tone made Newt hurry over. 

"The Danger back?" Hansen asked, getting up. 

"No," Hermann said. Newt sucked in a breath so hard it squeaked. "But your new Drift partner is."

On the screen, at the perimeter of the Dome, lurked the last three Yaujta Class Kaiju. The one that still had the remains of a mobile PONS device clinging to the protrusions on its head was pacing uncertainly. The other two hung back, clearly uneasy, but either unable or unwilling to leave their packmate. They faded in and out of sight, activating their chameleon abilities. Hansen's did not. It stayed clearly visible. 

"Omigod! Omigod, it came!" Newt was almost hopping up and down. "I can't believe this! You're seeing this too, right? I mean Otachi came after me, sure, but I don't think it was of her own free will, I think- what?"

Hansen was already heading for the door. Hermann swore under his breath and lunged for the controls to send some of the sentries out with him. Even though the Kaiju were close enough to monitor, they were still about half a mile from the Dome. Hopefully, Hansen would put on a coat before he went out. It didn't take long for security to flank him with truck-mounted guns, but he waved them back. The Kaiju bared their saberteeth and snarled.

"This is so stupid," Newt moaned. He was pacing in circles. "What if it just eats him? I mean, will the guns be able to stop it if it goes for him? I mean, I would totally do the same thing. No question of that. But what if it just wants to lure him out and you know, it keeps eye contact with him and then the other two hit him while he's mesmerized? What if-?"

"Just watch!" Hermann said. Hansen had stopped out of immediate striking range. The two trucks and their guns stopped a bit behind him and the sentries went into a defensive positions around him. The other two Kaiju faded to nervous blurs, sinking low to the ground and backing away. The main one stood its ground even though its bioluminescent lights were flashing and it bristled uneasily. It took a step toward Hansen, then stopped. It backed up three steps and paced in a quick circle. Hansen didn't move. 

It took another step toward him and then stopped again. It yowled angrily, baring all its teeth again and then sat down with a thump. Its tails lashed and it glared. Its head was lowered enough that it could glower at Hansen with all six eyes, even the one high on its skull. There was a long stand off and then Hansen finally took a step towards it. The sentries shifted too, and so did the guns on the trucks. The Kaiju was growling and drooling. The fangs were dripping. Maybe it was working up some venom. Maybe slobbering was a stress reaction. Maybe it thought this was a terrible idea, too. 

Hermann thought Newt might combust as Hansen carefully stretched a hand out to it. Flashbacks of the crowded shelter and the searching tongue broke a cold sweat out on both of them. Newt was chanting 'stupid,stupid, stupid' under his breath and chewing on his own fist. It was terrible to be equally insane with envy and completely convinced that no good would come of this. Luckily Hermann was used to both those emotions and was holding up a little better. The Kaiju slunk forward another step and then roared straight into Hansen's face, blue lights flashing and spraying him with spit. The gunners fired and both shots ricocheted of the creature's head. 

It screeched and turned toward the nearest one. Hansen grabbed it around the neck. It had to the be most ridiculous impulse to have ever pranced through a human's brain. I think I'll jump off this cliff. Maybe I'll eat that brightly colored frog. I bet I could have sex with that. I think I'll grab this monster by the neck. If Newt had had a clear view of the screen from the floor, he would probably have just collapsed, but he had to keep watching as Hansen suddenly became a muzzle and a human shield. The Kaiju sat down again. A less objective person would've thought it looked sulky. Well, if it was Compatible with Hansen, it probably would have to be a brat. But it wasn't attacking him. It was letting him touch it.

"Oh my God," Newt said again. Hermann let out the breath he'd be holding. 

"You might get a pet Kaiju one day after all," he said. Newt just made a breathless noise. "The PPDC is going to have kittens."

"Oh yeah." Newt's panic was shed almost at once and replaced by maniacal glee. "But ours are going to be cooler."


	28. dépaysement (the feeling from not being in one's home country)

There was no common ground anymore. No one knew what the best course of action was. Hansen's Drift was utterly different from Newt and Hermann's. The Kaiju had refused to follow him back to base, but hadn't left the area. It had been Raleigh's reluctant, uncertain idea to feed it. Large quantities of meat were hard to come by in the Dome, so there wasn't nearly enough to feed something the size of the Yaujta class. The problem temporarily solved itself when they found it eating one of the remaining two. Newt threw up all over himself at the sight, which was so unlike him that Hermann wouldn't leave him alone until he went to medical. 

It left Hansen to consider the things Newt had spouted as he was lead away. What had they done to the Kaiju that made it turn on its own packmates even when not influenced from the outside? Had it been cut off from the hivemind when the AI Drifted with it? Was that why it turned so easily on the others as soon as Hansen's hate had hit its head? 

"Am I really the monster now?" he asked out loud. None of the techs felt up to answering. Mako was there, going over the readings. 

"No more than any of us," she said. "We didn't make long-range weapons to fight them, after all. No giant guns. We went in tooth and nail to fight them. Hand to hand. Because that's the nature of the human beast as well. And it was the only thing that worked, anyway."

"So by sending the Kaiju, they were fighting fire with fire, you think?" Hansen asked. "Monsters to kill smaller monsters?"

"Oh, no," Mako smiled, all steel. "I think they expected this to be a simple sweeping clear."

"And got a faceful of robot fist as a surprise?" He grinned as he said it. 

"Or a spinal column full of teeth just like theirs." She nodded at the feeding Kaiju. "We're still surprising them, Marshall, and as long as we continue to do so, we can still beat them."

"Again." Hansen said, more drily this time. "Don't think I don't know how far off the map this is." 

"Maybe for keeps this time," she said. On the screen, the third Kaiju slunk into sight and timidly tried to join the first in eating their comrade. The killer snarled and postured until it groveled and then ignored it while they both ate. Somewhere down the hall, they could hear Newt still arguing that he was fine. 

"There's a call from the PPDC," a messenger said, leaning in. 

"Let's see what they think of this," Hansen sighed, and got up to answer it.


	29. guanxi (goodwill built up and used with gifts and favors)

Newt was released from medical with some sleeping pills and told to get some rest. He scoffed loudly, but Hermann took them and then Newt's arm, and lead him back to their quarters. Newt's complaints were answered with being undressed and put to bed. Hermann set the alarm for two hours without speaking and Newt started to settle. He could stand two hours. He was even happy about it when Hermann crawled in with him. Hermann was still very serious though, nestling in nose to nose.

"You have never been squeamish in your life," he said. "Tell me what's wrong." Newt's smirk faded out and he sputtered a little. Hermann waited in silence. 

"I want to Drift again," Newt finally said. "With you," he added quickly, as if there was doubt.

"Of course, dear," Hermann said. "Please tell me why." His gentleness was as unnerving as temper would be from someone else. Newt crumbled again. He picked at the blanket, at Hermann's sweater, his own arms, pinching and tugging at anything to ground himself a little. 

"Before? Before we Drifted last time?" He fidgeted, face falling just to admit it. "They made me think of it. Turning on you. Hurting you. Those two were in a hivemind. It must've been like eating your own leg out of starvation. Like killing yourself."

"At least Marshall Hansen didn't feel it happening," Hermann said. Newt shuddered and Hermann reached to cup his face. 

"With what I was doing to the Mumbler," Newt said. "I thought for sure you would hate me for it. Turn on me."

"No," Hermann said, kissing him. "No." He pressed kisses down Newt's jaw to his neck. It turned into not quite gentle bites. "Tear out your throat? Like this?"

"Oh," Newt said. Hermann smooched, nipped, and nuzzled down to his chest. Newt ran hands into his hair. "I guess it's not so bad." Hermann hummed happily back. "You really will Drift with me again, right?"

"Of course," Hermann said again. He squirmed back up to eye level. "I liked it, too."

"I don't want you to have to slog through all my freaking out," Newt said. "But I need you." He touched their heads together. "Everywhere. All the nooks and crannies." He had meant in his head, but Hermann's smile twitched and both of their faces went red.

"All of them?" Hermann asked, and how he could make the voice Newt had argued with for more than a decade suddenly the sexiest thing ever could not be explained. Even if it was a really lousy innuendo.

"Yeah." Newt said anyway. "Yes. Totally. Please."

"I think we've earned that." 

 

\------

Elsewhere, the PPDC was not thrilled. They had arrived via telescreen to demand explanations and threaten all manner of punishments and Hansen did not have Stacker's poker face.

"Drifting with the Kaiju doesn't cost any extra!" he finally barked at one of the screens. Somewhere in the building, a PONS device was switched on and the screens distorted just a bit. It cleared just in time for one of the senior members to turn snide. 

"Well, if it works so well why not discontinue production on the two other jaegers? We thought you would be glad to have the Striker back, but if you would rather run wild-"

"We had to fight you tooth and nail for every bolt in those things," Hansen snarled. "Stacker had to go to the Hong Kong black market to keep us afloat when you rats abandoned us. Don't even pretend that you have been generous."

A few of the suits seemed genuinely taken aback at that and Hansen didn't care. These exchanges had always stayed respectful with Stacker because the former Marshall had radiated and demanded it from everyone. Hansen was not so poised. He felt back in his old form again. Maybe he just wasn't alone in his own head anymore, even if the other presence was a cannibal monster. Maybe that's why it was so easy to go for the throat. Then, a tech hustled in. 

"There's activity in Tianying," the kid said. "We can expect another Breach in the next 48 hours."

"That's awfully quick, Marshall," one of the PPDC said. "More of your handiwork? Didn't this happen the last time a Kaiju Drifted with a human mind?"

"This will be the first time they've opened a new Drift before the previous one was destroyed." Hansen grinned like a shark. "They know the last members of the Yaujta Class are lost to them. They belong to us now."


	30. sisu (determination, tenacity, resilience, perseverance, stoic toughness)

Tianying had spewed out a whole flock of new Kaiju. They were winged, and feathered and had the soft concave faces of a barn owl, studded with several extra eyes. They also had haunches like a kangaroo and a long, feathered tail. They were spreading some kind of poisonous spore. As they flapped or hopped around Tianying, they shed fine particles that started growing wherever they settled. It grew into an algae-like organism that began producing toxins. It made eyes, throats, and noses burn. The humans that died were found to have blisters through their sinuses and lungs and across the surface of their eyeballs. The owlaroos were comparatively easy to kill but if they weren't burned within minutes, their bodies became whole clusters of the spores. Every time one died, it contaminated a square block. There were so many that it had only been two days and the city was already overrun. 

Newt was calling them Xiao class. He said it was a flesh-eating owl monster in mythology, but even that didn't change the fact that they were cuter than they had any reason to be. 

"You want one don't you?" Raleigh teased Mako. 

"Maybe a plush one," she admitted. "That squeaks."

"All right," Hansen said. "Sorry, doctors, but you can't capture any of those. If they're as toxic as that, we can't have them in the dome."

"All I need is a sample from a live one," Newt began, but was interrupted by the yowls as soon as Hansen's Yaujta was refitted with a squid cap. The Yaujta didn't want anything to do with the Xiao, but once the AI kicked in and Hansen's influence Drifted into its mind, it started to get battle ready. Mako and Raleigh were there with the 2 and 3 jaegers. More of the mobile units were with them as well to try to turn whatever Xiao they caught. 

The Xiao weren't as aggressive as the previous kaiju had been. They avoided the jaegers, and flapped away from the skittering mobile units, but the Yaujta could leap and slap them out of the air. The spores made it sneeze but didn't seem to bother it otherwise. Hansen didn't feel any irritation in his own membranes, so they went on. Mako and Raleigh tried to pick them off and then contain the bodies in the capture sphere before they could spread. It was tedious work and grim to blow apart small, fluffier creatures that were actively trying to get away. Since there were so many, it was taking hours.

There was a rumble from the Breach. Energy discharge crackled around it. 

"What was that?" Hansen asked. 

"Marshall, there is activity in the Breach!" Hermann announced over the com, even though they could all hear him in the same room. "It's… It's like before!"

"More Xiaos?" Raleigh asked.

"No," Hermann said, his voice rose in disbelief. "Like a Category IV! Marshall, I think-" Then the Kaiju burst out of the Breach. It was huge. It looked like a komodo dragon with ripples of patagium down it's sides. It was lower to the ground than Leatherback had been, but it was long and never seemed to end as it poured out of the Breach. Raleigh and Mako opened fire on it. As soon as it saw them, its neck inflated and it spewed a torrent of something bright blue over them. It was caustic. They could smell the metal skin of the jaegers scorching under it.

"They tricked us!" Raleigh shouted. "Sent in enough little ones to makes us scale down and then sent the big guns back."

"Bail! Both of you," Hansen said. "Get back here in the Danger."

"Going," Raleigh said. 

"Be careful," said Mako. They both disengaged, letting the AIs take over the smaller jaegers. The jaegers stopped moving and begin firing from their present positions. The sentries and mobile units were still latching on to whatever Kaiju they could find. The Xiao Class were flapping everywhere. The Yaujta screamed its battle cry and launched itself for the Category IV's throat. 

Back on the carrier, Newt was almost hysterical. He was trying to get the controls from Hermann and screaming over his shoulder at Hansen.

"PONS it! If we can PONS it, we can send it back through the Breach! Right back into their faces! PONS THAT THING!"

"The mobile units aren't strong enough to get through its skull!" Hermann said, pushing him toward the commlink. "Contact the pilots and tell them to bring the one from the labs. Hurry!"

It was all battle and mayhem in the city below. The Category IV was so long, it didn't have to move much. It just spit out torrents of the acid at whatever came near it. Its skin was tough enough that the Yaujta didn't trouble it much. The second Yaujta had joined the fight at some point. It seemed anxious to rejoin its packmate and they whipped around each other, dodging the acid and biting or kicking everything in range. 

It took two hours for the Mokushi Danger to rejoin the fight. The Kaiju spewed the fiery acid all over her, but she waded into it and put the creature in a headlock. She clamped the larger PONS onto its head and Hermann directed every mobile unit on the scene to connect with it. Every AI not currently in the Drift with one of the other Kaiju flocked over to force their hold on it. The hivemind _screamed_. Hansen shrieked along with it. Hermann felt the backlash and staggered. Newt was knocked off his feet. For a moment, it was all noise and pain and rage beyond human comprehension. 

Then, the AIs sank in, drowning it all out into white noise. The Category IV roared and struggled, but as the minutes ticked by, it settled. It stood still, head hanging like a horse in blinders. It was surreal to see the gigantic jaeger holding the immense monster, neither of them moving. Then, slowly as a sleepwalker, the IV turned and started back toward the Breach. 

"Oh my God," Newt gasped from the floor. "Please work. Please let it work. Please. Please work."

 

In the Anteverse, a flock of the AI controlled Xiao class burst back through the Breach. They attacked everything in sight, but were too small to do more than cause confusion. The two Yaujta followed them in and went for the nearest throats. Then, the Category IV returned and the hivemind fell into chaos. None of the other Kaiju knew who to fight or where the danger was actually coming from and it didn't take them long to act on the loudest command in their heads. They turned on each other and soon the whole Anteverse was a mad brawl. 

Back on Earth, Hermann and Newt were doing their best to keep their own minds together. Their recent Drift helped override the hive. But then, the Mokushi Danger shrugged out from under the Category IV where it had ridden in with it, and opened fire. 

Hansen was synched with the Yaujta and so lost in his own bloodlust that he hadn't even noticed, but the jaeger wading through the Breach made him remember his nightmares and he screamed. The Yaujta panicked with him, bolting for the Breach. The Danger was in their way, shooting and stabbing, just wading through the walls and seas of Kaiju. The anguish in the hivemind intensified. 

It left Newt curled even tighter, clawing at his own temples and biting his lip bloody not to scream. Hermann was being hammered by it too. He left the controls and dragged one of the AIs over to try and fit it on Newt's head.

"No!" Newt screamed. "NOnoNONO! You! It has to be YOU!"

"I'll be there!" Hermann said. "I'm coming with you. Just, just put this on." He fitted the squid cap over Newt's head and struggled into his own. He still had to monitor all the readings. They had to get the Danger and both pilots back out of the Breach before it collapsed. With the AI as a shield and each other's minds for comfort, he and Newt were able to pull themselves together and function. 

They could feel the lights going out. Kaiju were killing and dying and taking the Anteverse down with them. The Breach was trying to crumble, but the Category IV's tail was still inside it. 

"Get out of there!" Hermann cried into the comm. Hansen roared something that could've been "GO!" All three of them spasmed as a massive surge hit. Newt wasn't sure if the power had gone out or if it was his vision fizzling as his brain shut down. He grappled with Hermann to clutch him close and make sure they couldn't be separated, and then it all went dark.


	31. toska (the anguish, ache, and yearning of the soul)

The carrier had to land on backup power. Whatever the surge was, it had killed the engines. Hermann's first horrified thought was that it was the backlash through Hansen's brain that had fried everything. They rushed to get Hansen out of the chair. The Marshall screamed and fainted as soon as the connection was cut, but his vital signs weren't dangerous. They left him with the medical team and went out to try and find Mako and Raleigh. 

The Breach had closed, even with the Category IV's tail still in it. There was about thirty feet of it still on the ground, but severed at the point where the Breach had been. That was also where less than half of the Mokushi Danger lay. Both the jaeger's arms and head had made it back through. The rest was gone, maybe trapped between dimensions with what remained of the Category IV. Mako and Raleigh were there, sitting on the head. They looked exhausted. Raleigh was slumped over in Mako's lap and she was using his shoulder as a pillow.

"Are you ok?" Newt shouted up to them. They both raised a thumbs up. In one hand, the Danger was holding one of the Yaujta class in its loose fist. The creature was dead, but no one was sure if it was Hansen's or the smaller packmate. 

"Box it up," Newt said. "If they can clone one, so can I."

"I don't even want to think of the paperwork involved in getting _that_ approved," said Hermann.

"If the Marshall wants Miss Kitty back, he'll approve it and ask forgiveness instead of permission."

"Is Herc all right?" asked Raleigh, struggling up. "It felt like-, we thought we felt him… just, just go…"

"We lost power in the carrier," Hermann said. "He lost consciousness when the connection was severed."

"There's still a chance we could be exposed to the spores that weren't destroyed in the fight," Newt said. "We really need to get out of here."

They were all handed gas masks and hurried back to the carrier. A collection team was sent out for the remains of the Kaiju and the Mokushi Danger. There was extensive decontamination for everything involved and then it was back to work. 

___

Two months passed and there was no more activity registering in any of the Breach spots. Hermann had to redesign almost every sentry and mobile unit, since they had all either been completely destroyed or lost in the Breach. Newt needled him into making sure the new models would be able to 'beat' the old ones, just in case the Precursors tried to use them against the earth again. 

"If they weren't all killed, and they aren't completely terrified by all the crazy we tracked into their living rooms, they could try again," Newt said. "And I wouldn't put it past them to use or own tricks against us."

"Even if our own trick was using their trick against them?"

"Especially if that!"

In the meantime, the Mokushi Danger was being rebuilt and production had been hurried along with the new models being built. Nothing like a Category IV to remind the world what the jaegers were for in the first place. Newt had gone back to trying to salvage enough of the Yaujta class' genetics to clone it. He insisted it was a her and that she might have been so hungry because she was pregnant. He also suggested that maybe the cannibalized Yaujta had felt her hunger in the hivemind, and given itself to her.

"Do try to stay objective," Hermann sighed. "Your theories are shaky enough." Newt stuck out his tongue and went back to making a ragdoll Xiao class for Mako. When he was able, Hansen came to see the remains. He confirmed that it had been the one he Drifted with and stood looking at it for a long time. The other pilots came with him. It might've been a show of support since he had now lost two Drift partners, and Raleigh was the only one left who knew what it was like to feel half your mind die. The silence got weird fast. 

"Do you know why it ate the other one?" Hermann asked. It wasn't the most tactful question, but he knew Newt wanted to know. His eyes flicked to Newt and back. Hansen was quiet for another moment, then shivered. 

"It wanted to live," he said. 

"We all do," Mako said. "And now we all have another chance to do it." 

"And with your permission," Newt said. He was confident enough in the answer to feign some good manners. "We can give another chance to her as well." He gestured at the remains. Hansen's jaw tightened a few times and he may have even glanced at Mako and Raleigh for approval. They didn't say anything. 

"Try to leave out the poison spines in her neck," he finally said. Newt lit up and Hermann rolled his eyes, but was inwardly pleased that Newt was finally getting his chance to do it. More chances all around, he thought. 

"For us, too," Newt said, even though Hermann hadn't said his out loud. " _Us_ , us, I mean."

"I know what you mean," Hermann pretended to snap. The way Newt grinned meant he knew there was no real venom behind it. "Fortune favor us all."

 

The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some [ doodle art.](http://hermitchild.deviantart.com/art/Kaiju-Plushies-465700833)


End file.
